In the Nation

LOS ANGELES - A Southern California Republican Party official is under fire over an e-mail that included an altered photograph depicting President Obama as an ape.

The e-mail, allegedly sent by party central committee member Marilyn Davenport, depicts a family portrait-style image of apes with Obama's face superimposed on one of them. Text beneath the photo reads: "Now you know why no birth certificate."

The alternative newspaper OC Weekly first reported the story, and was told by Davenport that the e-mail was "just an Internet joke." She also asked the Weekly, "You're not going to make a big deal about this are you?" Davenport, a tea party activist, represents the 72d Assembly District on the central committee.

Republican Party of Orange County chairman Scott Baugh said Saturday that he wants an ethics investigation into the incident. "It's just highly inappropriate, it's a despicable message, it drips with racism, and I think she should step down from the committee," Baugh said. - AP

OAK HARBOR, Ohio - A part-time farmer told a 911 dispatcher that he killed his wife and three children and was "getting ready to kill myself" inside their farmhouse on land tended by his family for at least four generations.

His grandmother Joan Atwater, who lives just steps away, watched through her blinds as deputies swarmed around the house. She desperately tried to reach Alan Atwater, 31, by phone just after midnight Saturday after hearing on a police scanner that her grandson had shot everyone inside.

Deputies in northern Ohio said the bodies of Atwater and the rest of the family were found with gunshot wounds in an upstairs bedroom. One-year-old Brady was in a bed. Ashley, 4, and Isaac, 2, were on the floor near their mother, Dawn, 30. The only hint of trouble came recently when Atwater confided in Joan Atwater's husband that he and his wife were having marital problems.

- AP

NEW YORK - A man with a long criminal history was arrested on a charge of first-degree assault Friday in a broad-daylight stabbing of the owner of a Brooklyn pizzeria that is a favorite of foodies and celebrities, police said.

Authorities captured Benny Geritano, 39, after he went to the hospital to get treated for lacerations on his hands caused by the attack on a busy commercial block, said Paul Browne, a spokesman for the city Police Department.

The pizzeria owner, Mark Iacono, 43, was hospitalized in critical but stable condition with stab wounds to the face, head and back. He operates Lucali, a pizzeria GQ magazine ranked No. 2 in the country in 2009. The two men had been arguing inside a deli a few blocks away, Browne said. - AP

A rescue operation was under way for a missing miner Saturday after a collapse on Friday at a silver mine in northern Idaho. Hecla Mining Co. president Phil Baker said the collapse occurred "at the 6,150-foot level" at the Lucky Friday Mine near two workers, one of whom escaped.